How data can make you a better recruiter

Striving to find ways to improve as a recruiter is important at all times but even more crucial when faced with a crisis. During these challenging times, we all need to step up to help both our clients and candidates and utilising every tool in our arsenal is vital. Data is one of those tools that, when used properly, can change the way you post jobs and up your recruitment game. After all, knowledge is power. We show you how to use data to improve your recruitment strategy with a ‘when, where, what’ approach.

We believe data can be of enormous value to recruiters. Using the data provided to you by your multi-poster can help you to establish the best day of the week to post jobs. Analysing that data can provide a guide as to how long your job advert should be, what keywords you should use and where the advert should be posted. It will also help you to make informed decisions on where to most wisely invest your budget. Data-driven recruitment is smart recruitment and, especially during a time of crisis when the recruitment industry is facing so many challenges, we need to be doing everything we can to enhance our strategies.

When to post

Knowing the day of the week candidates in particular industries are most frequently applying for jobs is of tremendous value as it allows recruiters to post jobs when candidates are active. It’s the visual equivalent of placing a job advert on the table in front of them versus dropping it in the middle of a pile of papers that they need to sort through when they have the time. You want your job post to be popping up on their screen when they are actively searching so that it is fresh and at or near the virtual top of the pile. So when is the best time to post jobs? According to our data, most applications are received on Mondays and Tuesdays, with Wednesdays and Thursdays very closely following. This is despite the fact that we can see that most jobs are posted on a Friday, when only 13% of applications are received and before the weekend when an even lower number of candidates are applying. This is a great example of where data could – and should – be used to improve recruitment strategies.

When are recruiters posting, compared to when candidates apply for jobs. Source: WaveTrackR

Where to post

It would be great to have a crystal ball that could tell us where the majority of top talent is looking but what we do have is reliable data that can provide you with recommended job boards based on which produces the most hires from each job posting. Inbuilt data analytics allow you to input your hiring information and then allocates that job to the best media choice. For recruiters, it doesn’t get much better than that! However, what we can also see from our data is that job boards account for a massive 83% of posted jobs. Recruitment websites are used to post 15% of jobs, which might not seem like a significant figure but in fact, represents a 10% increase from 2018. It is important not to forget social media platforms, which were only used for 2% of all job posts last year. This has never been truer than right now, during the Coronavirus pandemic, when the world is on lockdown and we are turning in our droves to social media in an effort to replace that essential human interaction. Social media channels such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are where you will find both passive and active candidates at any time of the day, 7 days a week.

Jop posting distribution by channel. Source: WaveTrackR

What to post

The content of your job advert is vital to find and reach out to top talent. Establishing the right job title, keywords and even length all helps to ensure you are reaching the right candidates and keeping their attention. For example, WaveTrackR’s annual report for 2020 on industry trends (taken from key data across the network) found that the preferred average length for job adverts is 200-300 words, although that did vary depending on the industry. Too long and you risk losing the candidate’s interest, too short and you might not include enough detail. Keywords are vital – if you fail to use a keyword that candidates are using to search with, either within a job board or in Google, your job might not make it onto their list. This is important for both job title wording and the main content of the job advert.

Using a talent attraction tool such as WaveTrackr that offers an easy-to-view dashboard showing the comparison of your job board performances can be incredibly useful. Being able to access information such as the number of applications received in comparison with posted jobs or hires, which job board brings you the most hires, or the rate of hires among all applications received all adds to a recruiter’s recruiting arsenal – and right now, we need every weapon at our disposal.

Find these and more insights on WaveTrackR’s 2020 Recruitment Trends Report.